These days, urban marathons that draw both huge fields and fast elites up front chasing modest prize purses are so common they barely raise an eyebrow in the running news. It seems that every week there's a new champion leading a field of several thousand in a city somewhere in the world. Consider that in the late fall of 2008, races were won in Amsterdam, Milan and Reims, France, with sub-2:08 times that might have been seen in the winner's circle of only the biggest races a decade ago. In Nairobi, 20 "farm team" Kenyans broke 2:20 on a tough course more than a mile high. Figure to see at least a few of them chasing the big dollars in some higher profile marathons next season.

But one needn't go back very far in running history to find a time when large, big-money marathons were not just uncommon, they were nonexistent. In the intervening years they've become woven into the fabric of most major cities, making them an integral part of those areas' emotional and financial well-being.

The year was 1975, and New York City was in the midst of a fiscal crisis. (Remember the Daily News headline, "Ford To City: Drop Dead"?) Amidst the monetary gloom and doom, a visionary, some would say audacious, running entrepreneur concocted the idea of holding a marathon through the city streets of the five boroughs. Though many deemed Fred Lebow crazy at the time, his idea became reality the following year, and in the ensuing three decades has spread across the globe until there is scarcely a major city worth its name that doesn't boast a 26-miler coursing down its avenues.

"The marathon lifted the city's spirits when it was down on its luck," says Mary Wittenberg, who is the current keeper of Lebow's organizational torch in her dual role as director of what has grown to be the ING New York City Marathon and CEO of the New York Road Runners, which celebrated its half century anniversary in 2008. With New York's Wall Street mired in financial woes that this time have become global in scope, it was the occasion for the marathon to once again assume its role as emotional and psychological beacon as well as athletic competition and participatory be-in.

If there is anyone who is expert on the New York Marathon as redemptory vehicle it should be Paula Radcliffe. After dropping out of the Athens Olympic race at 36K, Radcliffe came to New York like a jilted girlfriend on the rebound, and found love and victory on the streets of the city, outsprinting Susan Chepkemei by a mere 3 seconds, the closest women's finish in the race's history. Last year, in her first marathon since the birth of her daughter Isla, she returned to New York and once again dueled shoulder-to-shoulder for 26 miles, this time with Gete Wami, prevailing by a more comfortable 23-second margin.

This year she was back again, after a second Olympic disappointment, this time a 23rd-place finish at the Beijing games in a desultory 2:32:38 run. That effort, hampered by a litany of injuries during its run-up, was so far off her world best 2:15:25 that she termed it hardly even as taxing as "a slow training run."

"My Olympic race was frustrating, because my legs were just not ready after the fracture injury," she says. "But a few weeks later all the cross-training I did for Beijing was paying off, the legs were moving, and I knew I was ready. One session -- well, it was a long tempo run -- went really well. 'That was great,' Gary [her husband, Gary Lough] said. And I said, 'You know what I want to do now, don't you?' And we picked up the phone and called Mary."

Radcliffe's New York love affair was ultimately requited once again, as she pulled away from 40-year-old Ludmila Petrova, the 2000 champ, on Fifth Avenue, where Radcliffe had won the famous road mile race in 1996 and '97, leaving the Briton with the rare luxury of savoring her accomplishment via a triumphal procession through the adoring crowds of Central Park's final miles. Petrova could take solace in snagging the world masters record in 2:25:43, eclipsing Priscilla Welch's 21-year-old mark by 48 seconds. Kara Goucher, touted as the next great American marathoner, ran 2:25:53, the best U.S. debut ever, to place third.

If there was a group in need of a bounce-back performance following Beijing it was the American distance runners, who, for the most part, failed to improve upon their Athens and Osaka performances this summer. So it was with no small degree of amazement that five of them -- James Carney, Abdi Abdirahman, Josh Rohatinsky, Jason Lehmkuhle, and Nate Jenkins -- led the men's race for the first miles. After that share of glory, the Americans were caught by a large international pack, which stayed together, some two dozen strong, for more than half the race. But the U.S. men weren't immediately spit out the back; indeed, at the finish, there would be five of them in the top 11, their best showing since 1982. Up front, Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos showed his 2006 win was no fluke by overhauling perpetual bridesmaid Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco in the final half mile.
Perhaps the biggest stir of the day was created by Wami's sixth-place finish, which left her in a tie with Germany's Irina Mikitenko for the 2007-08 World Marathon Majors title. With the limited tie-breaking criteria leaving the two still tied, the decision was left to a vote by Wittenberg and the other four directors, who ultimately chose the German by dint of her faster times and higher placings. That small degree of controversy achieved the goal of finally making the WMM title a compelling story, but also showed the system is neither fully fair nor comprehensible. The principals allowed they'd be examining and tweaking it for the next two-year cycle.

It's possible the WMM may total an even half dozen soon; on November 16, the 30th and final edition of the Tokyo Women's Marathon was won by Yoshimi Ozaki in a personal best 2:23:30. Rumors say that elite-only race will be absorbed by the two-year-old Tokyo International Marathon, a mass event that lacks only elite runners to be considered for Majors status. It's clear WMM would love a winter event in Asia to make its tour more worthy of the "World" in its title.

While Radcliffe's wire-to-wire win and dos Santos' come-from-behind victory stirred the crowd's spirits, there was less certainty that the race produced equal magic on the city's coffers. To be sure, there was a huge influx of out-of-town runners and their friends and families, but more of them seemed to be staying the two-night minimum rather than turning the race into an extended New York vacation. And for the first time since 2001 the number of finishers declined, as did the number of starters, perhaps the first indication that the worsening economic climate is having an effect on the heretofore recession-proof running industry.

Or perhaps not. Two weeks later, the Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon debuted with 25,000 runners, the largest first-time event ever, and the following weekend's Philadelphia Marathon, after years of being a last-minute fallback race for those looking for redemption after New York, sold out almost two months in advance. And Pittsburgh, which hosted the men's Olympic trials race in 2000, is reviving its marathon, even in the face of shrinking sponsorship possibilities.

So, in tough economic times, maybe running is still a safe haven. After all, when your 401k is shrinking faster than a cheap cotton race T-shirt, perhaps the best way to de-stress is with an exercise-induced endorphin fix. A good 10-miler may not replace a 200-point bounce in the Dow, but it might be the next best thing.